A bittersweet film by Evan Bourque that shows how life has changed under lockdown

As Vancouver went into lockdown to fight the spread of Covid-19, filmmaker Evan Bourque decided to document his life with his girlfriend, revealing a bittersweet story that compares life before and after the pandemic.

Aptly named Now and Then, the short film features merged clips of what the couple might’ve done before when life was “normal” and what they do now during the quarantine. Aside from a gentle backdrop of melancholy music, Evan also uses soundbites of previously full parks against shots of empty, closed-off playgrounds, covered in forbidden yellow tape.

“I wanted the film to be as natural as possible, so I kept an eye out for situations that fit the concept and I’d just let the camera roll,” Evan tells us. “I focused on activities we used to leave the house to do (going for a drink, working out, skateboarding) and activities we didn’t make time for before Covid-19, like reading, writing music, making dinner together.”

Although they didn’t see another soul for a month and they experienced all the same feelings and concerns like we all have, Evan says there have been many positives: “Experiencing a slower pace of life has been good for the soul. We’ve been cooking and eating together more often, finding time to read, write music, and focus on personal projects that often get smothered by our busy lives. So it’s been nice to slow down a bit.”

In his film, we see the couple much closer than they were before coronavirus became the theme of 2020. Has he learnt anything from the pandemic? And will he change anything when life resumes? “I’ll be dedicating more time to personal projects. This time has given me a chance to take a step back from commercial work and remind myself why I started filmmaking in the first place,” Evan adds.